the BEACON Newspaper, Indiana beacon12-17web | Page 4

Page 4
THE BEACON
December 2017
Preserved Historic Structure Gives Back to Community
Continued from page 1
clear as a bell down here.”
Randy Ickenroth attended
classes in Carnegie Hall and
said, “I was on the Board the
first time when they saved
the building. See, they were
going to tear this building
down. When they built the
new school, they were going
to take a wrecking ball to it.
But a lot of people, before I
got on the Board, did a good
job here: Clara Larabee and
Beulah Cunningham, and a lot
of people; Virgil Heller did a
lot of work here.”
The 110-year-old building
had its start when John C.
Moore and his contemporaries
first addressed the challenge
of building a college from
the ground up in the mid-
1800s, in the town founded
by the elder Moore, Adam.
Shortly thereafter, these civic-
minded folks joined forces
with Southeastern Indiana’s
Methodist Episcopal Church
to open the Moores Hill Male
and Female Collegiate Insti-
tute in 1856.
From that auspicious
beginning, generations of
townspeople have watched
the property adapt to many
changes. The construction of
Carnegie Hall in 1907, built in
part with the financial sup-
port of its namesake Andrew
Carnegie; the loss of the three
story Moore Hall to fire that
same year; and the final col-
Filled with everything from letter jackets to hand written documents, the main and military
museums offer local information and a glimpse of school life spanning almost 100 years.
These steps leading to the
stage have been well worn
by countless Carnegie Hall
thespians, musicians and
valedictorians.
Photos by Susan Ray
lege class commencement in
1916. Upon the relocation
of the college to Evansville,
the campus was given to the
public school system for use
as an elementary and high
school. The last senior class
graduated in 1978, and only
nine years later, grade school
students were dismissed from
Carnegie Hall classrooms for
the last time.
During a recent tour of this
iconic structure that is listed
on the National Register of
Historic Places, Linda Ick-
Randy Ickenroth stays busy
with the restoration and
maintenance of Carnegie
Hall, from the original heat-
ing system in the basement
to the vintage school bell
found in the upper reaches
of the building.
enroth, president of Carnegie
Historical Landmarks Preser-
vation Society, remembered
that some discussion had
occurred about possible uses
for the empty building. Some
people thought that turning
the classrooms into apart-
ments was one way the build-
ing could be saved and gener-
ate revenue at the same time.
She said, “We had a meeting,
and different Landmarks
people came from throughout
this area and brought the his-
toric architect from Cincinnati
in. He said that is not a good
idea because you could only
get six or eight apartments in
because the walls are so thick;
you wouldn’t get any financial
benefit from it at all because
Graffiti from the 1970s adorns a third floor classroom, just
above the careful stencils dating from the early 1900s.
Carnegie Hall alumna Linda
Ickenroth invites neighbors,
residents, and anyone with
an interest in Indiana history,
architecture, and genealogy
to visit the museum and take
a tour of the building.
there would be so much work
to it. It just was not feasible
at all.”
When walking through the
A narrow ladder leads to the
fourth story bell. Its peals
were a familiar sound to
generations of students.
Collegiate Gothic style build-
ing, evidence of its history
Continued on page 5
215 E. Broadway S